Back in 1957, soon-to-be President John F. Kennedy Jr. won a Pulitzer Prize for Profiles In Courage
A nice little story, a future President who wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning history book.
Except he didn’t write it at all:
In his long-awaited memoirs, Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History, former JFK aide Ted Sorensen admits he “collaborated” on Profiles in Courage with then Sen. John F. Kennedy.
According to a Wall Street Journal review, Sorensen says, for the first time, that he “did a first draft of most chapters,” “helped choose the words of many of its sentences” and likely “privately boasted or indirectly hinted that I had written much of the book.”
Sorensen also admits that in 1957 — just after the book won a Pulitizer Prize — that Kennedy “unexpectedly and generously offered, and I happily accepted, a sum” for Sorensen’s work on the book.
In other words, Sorensen wrote the book and Kennedy took the credit, and the Pulitzer.
H/T: James Joyner
Don’t you think you’re being a bit sensationalist? Revoke it over some speculation 50 years later that he *likely* boasted that he wrote more of the book? You know, it’s not that uncommon for non-authors to work with some literary minded people when they write books.
Having actually read Sorensen’s book and listened to him speak on this, I can tell you that I (somewhat) agree with you. There is no question in my mind that Sorensen did not get the amount of credit that he actually deserved (although I don’t think that he wrote the whole book and JFK just stuck his name onto it). In the book he eludes to a deal which “[was] unexpectedly and generously offered, and I happily accepted, a sum.”
A little fishy, if you ask me.